A Brand New Year

My goodness.  2014.  The years do fly by, don’t they?! 

I thought I’d jump into the new year by sharing a few things I’ve been working on in the rare quiet holiday hours since we last talked…

{this is a BIG one!}

Did you make any resolutions for the new year?

I didn’t, really—except the promise to myself to take more time out for creating this year—I’m finding I really need it!

{this page is to remind myself to create “outside the box” this year—I was about to cut off the off-the-page portion of her skirt—then found I just didn’t want to!}

Here’s my first page in my brand new journal for my brand new year—a beautiful vintage calendar remade for January 2014—just perfect for the vintage girl in me!   {thank-you, Crafty Secrets!}

And a layout I’ve been thinking of doing for a long time finally found it’s way onto paper…

Since the pages explain it all, I won’t make you read it twice!

I’m all about feeling connected—to my past, present and future.  Always have been.  Always will be…….

…but I have to admit to feeling a little “unconnected” to those fabulous 1970’s hairstyles!

Here’s wishing you a very happy and very creative year!

I’m joining up today with one of my favorite companies—Crafty Secrets—for their monthly challenge:  2014 Calendar Challenge.

Please take a minute and visit the ladies on the Crafty Secrets’ Design Team to see what they’ve created for the challenge today—you will be very inspired for your new year of creativity, I promise!

Kathy Clement

Vicki Chrisman

Michele Kovack

Darlene Pavlick

Kathy Clement

Elizabeth Lincoln

Cherry Nelson

See you soon with something new…

Julie

{Free vintage calendar download courtesy of Crafty Secrets.}

LiveJournal Tags: New Year,Crafty Secrets,calendar,creativity,connected,ancestors,Lois Barnes Pratt Hunt,Ida Hunt Udall,art journal

Christmas Wishes

My favorite time of the year….time to focus on family, on love, on giving…

…on our Savior.

Time to take a bit of a blog break and revel in the homey Christmas joys I love so very much.

Wishing you and yours the most wonderful season of love at this Christmas time…and may you always remember the reason for it all.

See you in the New Year!

Julie

LiveJournal Tags: Christmas,navitity,remember,Jesus Christ

First Things First

What’s the most important thing in all the world?  Love, we’re told…

…and I do believe they’re right.  There are so many kinds of love—the love for your spouse, a mother’s love, love for your parents, siblings & friends…

…we could go on & on.  Love makes the world go round, right? 

I wonder if we give those we love most the priority they deserve.

I wonder…

That’s certainly something I’m working on right now.  Where am I spending the most time?  What am I focusing on? 

Are my priorities in line with what’s truly important???

Perhaps that’s why, subconsciously, the focus of my creativity has changed this last year or so…

I wonder…

 

A little less time, I’m finding, for things that are merely fluff.  A little more time spent trying to look inside—trying, creatively, to put pen to paper in an effort to leave something lovely behind for those that will come long after I’m gone…

…something that reveals a bit of my heart.  Something that will show the things that really matter to me.

First things first.

Julie

LiveJournal Tags: art journal,priorities,love,family